'''Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell''' OM, GCMG], GCVO, KCB (22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941), also known as '''B-P''', was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, and founder of the Scout Movement.

+

<center><big>[[Robert Baden-Powell]] is the founder of [[Boy Scouting]].</big></center>

-

After having been educated at Charterhouse School, Baden-Powell served in the British Army from 1876 until 1910 in India and Africa. In 1899, during the Second Boer War in South Africa, Baden-Powell successfully defended the city in the Siege of Mafeking. Several of his military books, written for military reconnaissance and scout training in his African years, were also read by boys. Based on those earlier books, he wrote ''[[Scouting for Boys]]'', published in 1908 by Sir Arthur Pearson, for youth readership. During writing, he tested his ideas through a [[Brownsea Island]] camping trip that began on August 1, 1907, which is now seen as the beginning of Scouting.

+

{{TOCleft}}

+

;Some Famous Quotes

+

{{quote-source|“A boy on joining wants to begin Scouting right away.”

-

After his marriage with Olave St Clair Soames, Baden-Powell, his sister Agnes Baden-Powell and notably his wife actively gave guidance to the Scouting Movement and the Girl Guides Movement]]. Baden-Powell lived his last years in Nyeri, Kenya, where he died in 1941.

+

“A [[Summer Camp|week of camp life]] is worth six months of theoretical teaching in the meeting room.”

-

==Early life==

+

“A boy is not a sitting-down animal.”

-

Baden-Powell was born as Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell, or more familiarly as Stephe Powell, at 6 Stanhope Street (now 11 Stanhope Terrace), [[Paddington]] in [[London]], [[England]], [[UK]] on [[22 February]] [[1857]].<ref name="jeal">{{cite book | first = Tim | last = Jeal | authorlink = Tim Jeal | title = Baden-Powell | publisher = [[Hutchinson (publisher)|Hutchinson]] | location = London| year = 1989 | id = ISBN 0-09-170670-X }}</ref> His father [[Reverend]] [[Baden Powell (mathematician)|Baden Powell]], a [[Savilian Professor of Geometry]] at [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]], already had four teenage children from the second of his two previous marriages. On [[10 March]] [[1846]] at St Luke's Church, [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], Reverend Powell married Henrietta Grace Smyth ([[3 September]] [[1824]] – [[13 October]] [[1914]]), eldest daughter of Admiral [[William Henry Smyth]] and 28 years his junior. Quickly they had [[Warington Baden-Powell|Warington]] (early 1847), [[George Baden-Powell|George]] (late 1847), Augustus (1849) and Francis (1850). After three further children who died when very young, they had Stephe, [[Agnes Baden-Powell|Agnes]] (1858) and Baden (1860). The three youngest children and the often ill Augustus were close friends. Reverend Powell died when Stephe was three, and as tribute to his father and to set her own children apart from their half-siblings and cousins, the mother changed the family name to ''Baden-Powell''. Subsequently, Stephe was raised by his mother, a strong woman who was determined that her children would succeed. Baden-Powell would say of her in 1933 "The whole secret of my getting on lay with my mother."<ref name="jeal" /><ref name="palstra">{{cite book | first = Theo P.M. | last = Palstra | title = Baden-Powel, zijn leven en werk | publisher = De Nationale Padvindersraad | city = Den Haag | month = April | year = 1967 }}</ref><ref name="drewery">{{cite book | first = Mary | last = Drewery | title = Baden-Powell: the man who lived twice | publisher = [[Hodder and Stoughton]] | city = London | year = 1975 | id = ISBN 0-340-18102-8 }}</ref>

+

-

After attending [[Rose Hill School]], [[Royal Tunbridge Wells|Tunbridge Wells]], during which his favourite brother Augustus died, Stephe Baden-Powell was awarded a scholarship to [[Charterhouse School|Charterhouse]], a prestigious [[public school (England)|public school]]. His first introduction to Scouting skills was through stalking and cooking game while avoiding teachers in the nearby woods, which were strictly out-of-bounds. He also played the [[piano]] and [[violin]], was an [[Ambidexterity|ambidextrous]] artist, and enjoyed [[acting]]. Holidays were spent on [[yachting]] or [[canoeing]] expeditions with his brothers.<ref name='jeal'/>

+

“Show me a poorly [[Uniform|uniformed]] troop and I’ll show you a poorly [[Uniform|uniformed]] leader.”

-

==Military career==

+

“There is no teaching to compare with example.”

-

In 1876, R.S.S. Baden-Powell, as he styled himself then, joined the [[13th Light Dragoons|13th Hussars]] in [[India]] with the rank of [[lieutenant]]. He enhanced and honed his [[Reconnaissance|military scouting]] skills during Britains invasion of the [[Zulu]] kingdom in the early 1880s from the [[KwaZulu-Natal|Natal province]] of [[South Africa]], where his regiment had been posted, and where he was [[Mentioned in Despatches]]. During one of his travels, he came across a large string of wooden beads, worn by the Zulu king [[Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo|Dinizulu]], which was later incorporated into the [[Wood Badge]] training programme he started after he founded the Scouting Movement. Baden-Powell's skills impressed his superiors and he was [[Brevet (military)|Brevetted Major]] as Military Secretary and senior [[Aide-de-camp]] of the Commander-in-Chief and Governor of [[Malta]], his uncle General Sir Henry Augustus Smyth.<ref name='jeal'/> He was posted in Malta for three years, also working as intelligence officer for the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] for the Director of [[Military intelligence|Military Intelligence]].<ref name='jeal'/> He frequently travelled disguised as a [[Insect collecting|butterfly collector]], incorporating plans of military installations into his drawings of butterfly wings.<ref name="butterfly">{{cite web | last = Baden-Powell | first = Sir Robert | authorlink = | year = 1915 | url = http://pinetreeweb.com/bp-adventure02.htm | title = My Adventures As A Spy | publisher = PineTree.web | accessdate = 2007-05-05}}</ref>

+

-

Baden-Powell returned to Africa in 1896 to aid [[British South Africa Company]] officials besieged

+

“The object of the [[patrol method]] is not so much saving the [[Scoutmaster]] trouble as to give responsibility to the boy.”

-

by Africans in [[Bulawayo]] during the [[Second Matabele War]].<ref name='matabele'>{{cite book | first = Robert | last = Baden-Powell | title = The Matabele Campaign, 1896 | publisher = Greenwood Press | location = | year = 1897 | ISBN= 0837135664 }}</ref> This was a formative experience for him not only because he had the time of his life commanding reconnaissance missions into enemy territory in [[Matobo National Park|Matobo Hills]], but because many of his later Boy Scout ideas took hold here.<ref name="proctor">{{cite journal| first = Tammy M. | last = Proctor | date = July 2000 | year = 2000 | month = July | title = A Separate Path: Scouting and Guiding in Interwar South Africa | journal = Compartive Studies in Society and History | volume = 42 | issue = 3 | issn = 3548-1356}}</ref> It was during this campaign that he first met and befriended the American scout [[Frederick Russell Burnham]], who introduced Baden-Powell to the [[American Old West]] and ''woodcraft'' (i.e., [[scoutcraft]]), and here that he wore his signature [[Stetson]] [[campaign hat]] and kerchief for the first time.<ref name='jeal'/> After [[Rhodesia]], Baden-Powell took part in a successful British invasion of [[Ashanti]], West Africa, and at the age of 40 was promoted to lead the [[5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) Dragoon Guards|5th Dragoon Guards]] in 1897 in India.<ref name='barrett'>{{cite book | first = C.R.B. | last = Barrett | title = History of The XIII. Hussars | publisher = William Blackwood and Sons | location = Edinburgh and London | year = 1911 | url = http://www.pinetreeweb.com/bp-hussars.htm | accessdate = 2007-01-02}}</ref> A few years later he wrote a small manual, entitled ''Aids to Scouting,'' a summary of lectures he had given on the subject of military scouting, to help train recruits. Using this and other methods he was able to train them to think independently, use their initiative, and survive in the wilderness.

+

-

He returned to South Africa prior to the [[Second Boer War]] and was engaged in further military action against the Zulu. By this time, he had been promoted and was the youngest [[colonel]] in the [[British Army]]. He was responsible for the organisation of a force of frontiersmen to assist the regular army. While arranging this, he was trapped in the [[Siege of Mafeking]], and surrounded by a Boer army, at times in excess of 8,000 men. Although wholly outnumbered, the garrison withstood the siege for 217 days. Much of this is attributable to cunning military deceptions instituted at Baden-Powell's behest as commander of the garrison. Fake minefields were planted and his soldiers were ordered to simulate avoiding non-existent [[barbed wire]] while moving between trenches.<ref>{{cite book | first = Jon | last = Latimer | title = Deception in War | location = London | publisher = John Murray | year = 2001 | pages = pp. 32–5}}</ref> Baden-Powell did most of the reconnaissance work himself.<ref name="boer">{{cite web | last = Conan-Doyle | first = Sir Arthur | authorlink = Arthur Conan Doyle | year = 1901 | url = http://www.pinetreeweb.com/conan-doyle-mafeking.htm | title = The Siege of Mafeking | publisher = PineTree.web | accessdate = 2006-11-17}}</ref>

+

“The more responsibility the Scoutmaster gives his [[Patrol leaders Council|patrol leaders]], the more they will respond.”

-

A more critical analysis of Baden-Powells performance during the Siege of Mafeking suggests that his success in resisting the Boers was secured only at considerable cost in the lives of African soldiers and civilians - including members his own African garrison. Pakenham states that Baden-Powell drastically reduced the rations to the African garrison.<ref>{{cite book | last =Pakenham | first =Thomas | title =The Boer War | date =1979|publisher= Avon Books| location=New York | isbn =0-380-72001-9}}</ref> Towards the final stage of the siege, this policy of cutting their rations was further tightened. This became known as "The leave-here-or-starve-here" policy. Which forced a mass exodus of the natives through the Boers lines with predictable results.

+

“The most important object in Boy Scout training is to educate, not instruct.”|[http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/Quotes.pdf Pearls of Wisdom—Quotes From Baden-Powell]}}

-

"You have only to sacrfice the nigger absolutely and the game is easy..."<ref>{{cite book | last =Pakenham | first =Thomas | title =The Boer War | date =1979|publisher= Avon Books| location=New York | isbn =0-380-72001-9}}</ref>

+

==Overview==

+

:''From: [http://www.scouting.org/Media/FactSheets/02-211.aspx Founders of Scouting and the BSA]

+

"As a youth, Robert Baden-Powell greatly enjoyed the outdoors, learning about nature and how to live in the wilderness. After returning as a military hero from service in Africa, Baden-Powell discovered that English boys were reading the manual about stalking and survival in the wilderness that he had written for British soldiers. Gathering ideas from [[Ernest Thompson Seton]], [[Daniel Carter Beard]], and others, he rewrote the manual as a nonmilitary nature skill book and called it [[Scouting for Boys]]. To test his ideas, Baden-Powell brought together 22 boys to camp at [[Brownsea Island]], off the coast of England. This historic campout was a success and resulted in the advent of Scouting. Thus, the imagination and inspiration of Baden-Powell, later proclaimed Chief Scout of the World, brought Scouting to youth the world over."

-

Jeal refutes these views— Baden-Powell was ordered by [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]] to prepare for four months of siege and to evacuate the African population on the best opportunity.<ref name="jeal" /> Baden-Powell drew up plans to move the indigenous refugees to [[Kanya]] and had supplies set up in Moshwane and [[Bechuanaland]] in preparation for the evacuation. After much advance notice, the Africans did not leave and Baden-Powell was forced to stop the sale of food to the refugee camp in order to press the issue. He then provided patrols to guide and protect the evacuees. After most of the African refugees had left, Baden-Powell found that people from outlying communities had been ostracized and had received little food. He had soup kitchens set up to feed the poor and starving, providing free meals for up to 1,500 people a day.

+

After his marriage with Olave St Clair Soames, Baden-Powell, his sister Agnes Baden-Powell and notably his wife actively gave guidance to the Scouting Movement and the Girl Guides Movement. Baden-Powell lived his last years in Nyeri, Kenya, where he died in 1941.

-

During the siege, a [[Mafeking Cadet Corps|cadet corps]], consisting of white boys below fighting age, was used to stand guard, carry messages, assist in hospitals and so on, freeing the men for military service. Although Baden-Powell did not form this cadet corps himself, and there is no evidence that he took much notice of them during the Siege, he was sufficiently impressed with both their courage and the equanimity with which they performed their tasks to use them later as an object lesson in the first chapter of ''Scouting for Boys''. The siege was lifted in the [[Siege of Mafeking|Relief of Mafeking]] on [[16 May]] [[1900]]. Promoted to [[Major-General|major-general]], Baden-Powell became a national hero.<ref name="NPG">{{cite web | url=http://www.npg.org.uk/live/wobaden.asp | title = Robert Baden-Powell: Defender of Mafeking and Founder of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides | work = Past Exhibition Archive | publisher = [[National Portrait Gallery (United Kingdom)|National Portrait Gallery]] | accessdate = 2006-11-17}}</ref> After organising the [[South African Police Service|South African Constabulary]], the national police force, he returned to England to take up a post as [[Inspector General]] of Cavalry in 1903.

+

==Early life==

+

Baden-Powell was born as Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell, or more familiarly as Stephe Powell in London, England, on February 22, 1857. His father Reverend Baden Powell, a Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford University, already had four teenage children from the second of his two previous marriages.

-

In 1910 lieutenant-general Baden-Powell decided to retire from the Army on the advice of [[Edward VII of the United Kingdom|King Edward VII]], who suggested that he could better serve his country by promoting Scouting.<ref name="endmilitary">{{cite web | url=http://users.aol.com/randywoo/bsahis/b-p.htm | title = Baden-Powell of Gilwell * Chief Scout of the World | work = The Ultimate Boy Scouts of America History Site | publisher = Randy Woo | accessdate = 2007-08-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.wivenhoe.gov.uk/Orgs/WSGA/about_badenpowell.htm | title = Lord Robert Baden-Powell "B-P" – Chief Scout of the World | work = The Wivenhoe Encyclopedia | accessdate = 2006-11-17}}</ref>

+

==Military career==

-

+

In 1876, R.S.S. Baden-Powell, joined the British Army in India as a Lieutenant. He honed his reconnaissance skills during Britain's invasion of the Zulu kingdom in the early 1880s. During one of his travels, he came across a large string of wooden beads, worn by the Zulu king Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo, which was later incorporated into the [[Wood Badge]] training program. He was posted in Malta for three years, also working as intelligence officer for the Mediterranean for the Director of Military Intelligence. He frequently traveled disguised as a butterfly collector, incorporating plans of military installations into his drawings of butterfly wings. [http://pinetreeweb.com/bp-adventure02.htm]

-

On the outbreak of [[World War I]] in 1914, Baden-Powell put himself at the disposal of the War Office. No command, however, was given him, for, as [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]] said: "he could lay his hand on several competent divisional generals but could find no one who could carry on the invaluable work of the Boy Scouts."<ref name='saunders'> {{cite book | first = Hilary | last = Saint George Saunders | title = The Left Handshake |chapter=Chapter II, ENTERPRISE, Lord Baden-Powell| publisher = | location = | year = 1948 | url = http://pinetreeweb.com/bp-memorial.htm |accessdate=2007-01-02}}</ref> It was widely rumoured that Baden-Powell was engaged in spying, and intelligence officers took great care to [[wiktionary:inculcate|inculcate]] the myth.<ref name="matebele">{{cite web | last = Baden-Powell| first = Sir Robert | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = 1915 | url = http://www.pinetreeweb.com/bp-adventure01.htm | title = My Adventures as a Spy | publisher = PineTree.web | accessdate = 2006-11-17}}</ref>

On his return from Africa in 1903, Baden-Powell found that his military training manual, ''Aids to Scouting'', had become a best-seller, and was being used by teachers and youth organizations. Baden-Powell decided to re-write ''Aids to Scouting'' to suit a youth readership. In August 1907 he held camp on [[Brownsea Island]] for twenty-two boys of mixed social background to test out the applicability of his ideas. In 1910 lieutenant-general Baden-Powell decided to retire from the Army on the advice of King Edward VII, who suggested that he could better serve his country by promoting Scouting.

On his return from Africa in 1903, Baden-Powell found that his military training manual, ''Aids to Scouting'', had become a best-seller, and was being used by teachers and youth organisations.<ref name="best-seller">{{cite web | last = Peterson | first = Robert | year = 2003 | url = http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/issues/0310/d-wwas.html | title = Marching to a Different Drummer | work = Scouting Magazine | publisher = Boy Scouts of America | accessdate = 2007-01-02}}</ref> Following his involvement in the [[Boys' Brigade]] as Brigade Secretary and Officer in charge of its scouting section, with encouragement from his friend, [[William Alexander Smith (Boys' Brigade)|William Alexander Smith]], Baden-Powell decided to re-write ''Aids to Scouting'' to suit a youth readership. In August 1907 he held a [[Brownsea Island Scout camp|camp on Brownsea Island]] for twenty-two boys of mixed social background to test out the applicability of his ideas. Baden-Powell was also influenced by [[Ernest Thompson Seton]], who founded the [[Woodcraft Indians]]. Seton gave Baden-Powell a copy of his book ''The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians'' and they met in 1906.<ref name="SetonWoo">{{cite web | last = Woo | first = Randy | year = Aug 1996 | url = http://members.aol.com/randywoo/bsahis/seton.htm | title = Ernest Thompson Seton | work = The Ultimate Boy Scouts of America History Site | publisher = Randy Woo | accessdate = 2006-12-07}}</ref><ref name="SetonInfed>{{cite web | year = 2002 | url = http://www.infed.org/thinkers/seton.htm | title = Ernest Thompson Seton and Woodcraft | publisher = InFed | accessdate = 2006-12-07}}</ref><ref name="BPInfed>{{cite web | year = 2002 | url = http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-bp.htm | title = Robert Baden-Powell as and Educational Innovator | publisher = InFed | accessdate = 2006-12-07}}</ref> ''[[Scouting for Boys]]'' was subsequently published in six instalments in 1908.

+

-

Boys and girls spontaneously formed [[Scout troop]]s and the [[Scouting]] Movement had inadvertently started, first as a national, and soon an international obsession. The Scouting Movement was to grow up in friendly parallel relations with the Boys' Brigade. A rally for all Scouts was held at [[The Crystal Palace|Crystal Palace]] in London in 1909, at which Baden-Powell discovered the first [[Girl Guide and Girl Scout|Girl Scouts]]. The [[Girl Guide]] Movement was subsequently founded in 1910 under the auspices of Baden-Powell's sister, Agnes Baden-Powell. Baden-Powell's friend, [[Juliette Gordon Low]], was encouraged by him to bring the Movement to America, where she founded the [[Girl Scouts of the USA]].

+

Boys and girls spontaneously formed Scout [[troop]]s and the Scouting Movement had inadvertently started, first as a national, and soon an international obsession. The Girl Guide Movement was subsequently founded in 1910 under the auspices of Baden-Powell's sister, Agnes Baden-Powell. Baden-Powell's friend, Juliette Gordon Low, was encouraged by him to bring the Movement to America, where she founded the Girl Scouts of the USA.

-

In 1920, the [[1st World Scout Jamboree]] took place in [[Olympia, London|Olympia]], and Baden-Powell was acclaimed [[Chief Scout (United Kingdom)|Chief Scout]] of the World. Baden-Powell was created a [[Baronet]] in the 1921 New Year Honours and '''Baron Baden-Powell''', of Gilwell, in the County of Essex, on [[17 September]] [[1929]], [[Gilwell Park]] being the International Scout Leader training centre.<ref name="ThePeerage">{{cite web |url = http://www.thepeerage.com/p876.htm#i8753 |title = Family history, Person Page 876 |publisher= The Peerage |accessdate= 2007-01-01}}</ref><ref name="Burke"> {{cite web | title = Burke's Peerage & Gentry | url = http://www.burkes-peerage.net/sites/Contents/book/UK/FHP/Peerage/fhp-BADENPOWELL.asp?&string1=badenpowell&BookType=Peerage&Region=UK#hit-1 | accessdate = 2007-01-01}}</ref> After receiving this honour, Baden-Powell mostly styled himself "Baden-Powell of Gilwell".

+

In 1920, the [[World Scout Jamboree]] took place in Olympia, London, and Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Scout of the World.

-

In 1929, during the [[3rd World Scout Jamboree]], he received as a present a new [[Rolls-Royce Limited|Rolls-Royce]] car and an [[Eccles]] [[travel trailer|Caravan]]. This combination well served the Baden-Powells in their further travels around [[Europe]]. Baden-Powell also had a positive impact on improvements in youth education.<ref name="education"> {{cite web | url = http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-bp.htm | work = Infed Thinkers | title = Baden-Powell as an Educational Innovator | accessdate = 2006-02-04}}</ref> Under his dedicated command the world Scouting Movement grew. By 1922 there were more than a million Scouts in 32 countries; by 1939 the number of Scouts was in excess of 3.3&nbsp;million.<ref name='nagy'>{{cite book | first = László | last = Nagy | authorlink = László Nagy (Scouting) | title = 250 Million Scouts | publisher = [[World Scout Foundation]] | location = Geneva | year = 1985}}</ref>

+

At the 5th World Scout Jamboree in 1937, Baden-Powell gave his farewell to Scouting, and retired from public Scouting life.

-

At the [[5th World Scout Jamboree]] in 1937, Baden-Powell gave his farewell to Scouting, and retired from public Scouting life. [[22 February]], the joint birthday of Robert and Olave Baden-Powell, continues to be marked as [[World Thinking Day|Founder's Day]] by Scouts and [[Thinking Day]] by Guides to remember and celebrate the work of the Chief Scout and Chief Guide of the World.

+

Baden-Powell died on 8 January 1941 and is buried in Nyeri, in St. Peter's Cemetery. His gravestone bears a circle with a dot in the centre, which is the trail sign for "I have gone home."

-

+

-

In his final letter to the Scouts, Baden-Powell wrote:

+

-

:...I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have a happy life too. I believe that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness does not come from being rich, nor merely being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man. Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things instead of the gloomy one. But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. 'Be Prepared' in this way, to live happy and to die happy - stick to your Scout Promise always - even after you have ceased to be a boy - and God help you to do it.<ref name="finalspeech">{{cite web | last = Baden-Powell | first = Sir Robert | authorlink = | year = | url = http://guidinguk.freeservers.com/B-P.html | title = B-P's final letter to the Scouts | publisher = Girl Guiding UK | accessdate = 2007-08-04}}</ref>

+

-

+

-

==Personal life==

+

-

In January 1912, Baden-Powell met the woman who would be his future wife, [[Olave Baden-Powell|Olave St Clair Soames]], on the ocean liner, ''Arcadian'', heading for [[New York]] to start one of his Scouting World Tours.<ref name="olave">{{cite web | last = Baden-Powell| first= Olave | url =http://www.pinetreeweb.com/bp-olave-00.htm | title = Window on My Heart | work= The Autobiography of Olave, Lady Baden-Powell, G.B.E.as told to Mary Drewery| publisher= Hodder and Stoughton | accessdate = 2006-11-16}}</ref><ref name="olaverobert">{{cite web | author = | url =http://www.girlguides.ca/media/pdfs/14-3/14.3.1.7.pdf | title = Fact Sheet: The Three Baden-Powell's: Robert, Agnes, and Olave | format = PDF | publisher= Girl Guides of Canada | accessdate = 2007-01-02}}</ref> She was a young woman of 23, while he was 55, a not uncommon age difference in [[Edwardian period|that time]], and they shared the same birthday. They became engaged in September of the same year, causing a media sensation due to Baden-Powell's fame. To avoid press intrusion, they married in secret on [[30 October]] [[1912]].<ref name="marriage">{{cite web | url = http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?mkey=mw83490 | title = Olave St Clair Baden-Powell (née Soames), Baroness Baden-Powell; Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell | publisher = National Portrait Gallery | accessdate = 2006-11-16}}</ref> The Scouts of England each donated a penny to buy Baden-Powell a wedding gift, a car (note that this is not the Rolls-Royce they were presented with in 1929). There is a monument to their marriage inside St Mary's Church, Brownsea Island.

+

-

+

-

Baden-Powell and Olave lived in [[Pax Hill]] near [[Bentley, Hampshire]] and Chapel Farm, [[Ripley, Surrey]] from about 1919 until 1939.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.weyriver.co.uk/theriver/people_3_names.htm | title = Wey people, the big names of the valley | publisher = Wey River freelance community | accessdate = 2007-04-29 }}</ref> The Bentley house was a gift of her father.<ref name="wade">{{cite web | last = Wade | first = Eileen K. | url = http://www.pinetreeweb.com/bp-pax-hill.htm | title = Pax Hill | publisher = PineTree Web | accessdate = 2006-11-16}}</ref> Directly after he had married, Baden-Powell had begun to have problems with his health, suffering bouts of illness. He complained of persistent headaches, which were considered by his doctor to be of [[psychosomatic illness|psychosomatic]] origin and treated with [[Dream interpretation|dream analysis]].<ref name="jeal"/> The headaches subsided upon his moving into a makeshift bedroom set up on his balcony.

+

-

+

-

In 1939, he and his wife moved to a cottage he had commissioned in [[Nyeri]], [[Kenya]], near [[Mount Kenya]], where he had previously been to recuperate. The small one-room house, which he named ''Paxtu'', was located on the grounds of the [[Outspan Hotel]], owned by [[Eric Sherbrooke Walker]], Baden-Powell's first private secretary and one of the first Scout inspectors.<ref name='jeal'/> Walker also owned the [[Treetops Hotel]], approx 17&nbsp;km out in the [[Aberdare Range|Aberdare Mountains]], often visited by Baden-Powell and people of the [[Happy Valley set]]. The Paxtu cottage is integrated into the Outspan Hotel buildings and serves as a small Scouting museum.

+

-

+

-

Jeal argues that Baden-Powell's distrust of [[communism]] led to his implicit support, through naïveté, of [[fascism]]. In 1939 Baden-Powell noted in his diary: "Lay up all day. Read ''[[Mein Kampf]]''. A wonderful book, with good ideas on education, health, propaganda, organization etc.—and ideals which [[Hitler]] does not practice himself."<ref name='Jeal, p.550'>{{cite book | first = Tim | last = Jeal | authorlink = Tim Jeal | title = The Boy-Man: The Life of Lord Baden-Powell | publisher = Morrow | location = New York |pages = 550 | year = 1990}}</ref> He also admired [[Mussolini]], and some early Scouting badges had a [[swastika]] symbol on them.<ref>{{cite web |url =http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au/tlf2/sitefiles/los/r2944/description.html |title =Boy Scout medal with fleur-de-lis and swastika, 1930s |accessdate = 2007-08-01 |author = |last = |first = |authorlink = |date = |format = |work = |publisher =The Learning Federation}}</ref> According to his biographer Rosenthal, Baden-Powell used the swastika because he was a Nazi sympathizer. Jeal, however, argues that Baden-Powell was naïve of the symbol's growing association with fascism and maintained that his use of the symbol related to its earlier, original meaning of "good luck" in [[Sanskrit]], for which purpose the symbol had been used for centuries prior to the rise of fascism. Despite these early sympathies, Baden-Powell was a target of the Nazi regime in [[the Black Book]], which listed individuals which were to be arrested during and after an invasion of Great Britain as part of [[Operation Sealion]]. Scouting was regarded as a dangerous spy organization by the Nazis.<ref name="blackbook">{{cite book | first = Walter| last = Schellenberg| authorlink = Tim Jeal | title = Invasion, 1940: The Nazi Invasion Plan for Britain |work= [[Imperial War Museum]]| publisher = St Ermin's Press| location = London|pages = | year = 2000}}</ref>

+

-

+

-

Baden-Powell died on [[8 January]] [[1941]] and is buried in Nyeri, in St. Peter's Cemetery ({{coord|-0.420033|S|36.947286|E|display=inline}}).<ref name="euroscout">{{cite web |url = http://www.euro.scout.org/wsrc/fs/bp_e.shtml | title = "B-P" – Chief scout of the world | work = Baden-Powell | publisher = World Organization of the Scout Movement | accessdate = 2006-11-16}}</ref> His gravestone bears a circle with a dot in the centre, which is the trail sign for "Going home", or "I have gone home": [[Image:Going home symbol.svg|25px|I have gone home]]<ref>{{findagrave|1271|Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell}}</ref> When his wife Olave died, her ashes were sent to Kenya and interred beside her husband. Kenya has declared Baden-Powell's grave a national monument.<ref name="dualgrave">{{findagrave|1272|Olave St. Clair Baden-Powell}}</ref>

+

-

+

-

The Baden-Powells had three children, one son and two daughters, who all acquired the courtesy title of "[[The Honourable]]" in 1929 as children of a baron. The son succeeded his father in 1941 to the Baden-Powell [[Baronet]]cy and the title of [[Baron Baden-Powell]].<ref name="burke">{{cite book | editor = Charles Mosley (editor) | title = Burke's Peerage and Baronetage | edition = 106th edition | publisher = Burke Peerage Genealogical Books Ltd | location = Crans, Switzerland | year = 1999}}</ref>

* Heather (1915–1986), who married John King and had two children: Michael and Timothy,

+

-

* [[Betty Clay|Betty]] (1917–2004), who married Gervase Charles Robert Clay in 1936 and had three sons and one daughter: Robin, Chispin, Gillian and Nigel.

+

-

+

-

===Artist and writer===

+

-

Baden-Powell made paintings and drawings, almost every day of his life. Most have a humorous or informative character.<ref name='jeal'/> He published books and other texts during his years of military service to both finance his life and to educate his men.<ref name='jeal'/>

+

-

+

-

Baden-Powell was regarded as an excellent storyteller. During his whole life he told 'ripping yarns' to audiences.<ref name='jeal'/> After having published ''Scouting for Boys'', Baden-Powell kept on writing more handbooks and educative materials for all Scouts, as well as directives for Scout Leaders. In his later years, he also wrote about the Scout Movement and his ideas for its future. He spent the last decade of his life in Africa, and many of this later books had African themes.

+

==Selected works==

==Selected works==

Line 83:

Line 52:

==Awards==

==Awards==

-

In 1937 Baden-Powell was appointed to the [[Order of Merit]], one of the most exclusive awards in the [[Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom|British honours system]], and he was also awarded 28 decorations by foreign states.

+

Baden-Powell was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on numerous occasions, including 10 separate nominations in 1928. [http://nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/nomination.php]

-

+

-

The [[Silver Wolf]] worn by Robert Baden-Powell is handed down the line of his successors, with the current Chief Scout, [[Peter Duncan (actor)|Peter Duncan]] wearing this original award.

+

-

+

-

The [[Bronze Wolf]], the only distinction of the [[World Organization of the Scout Movement]], awarded by the [[World Scout Committee]] for exceptional services to world Scouting, was first awarded to Baden-Powell by a unanimous decision of the then ''International Committee'' on the day of the institution of the Bronze Wolf in [[Stockholm]] in 1935. He was also the first recipient of the [[Silver Buffalo Award]] in 1926, the highest award conferred by the [[Boy Scouts of America]].

Overview

"As a youth, Robert Baden-Powell greatly enjoyed the outdoors, learning about nature and how to live in the wilderness. After returning as a military hero from service in Africa, Baden-Powell discovered that English boys were reading the manual about stalking and survival in the wilderness that he had written for British soldiers. Gathering ideas from Ernest Thompson Seton, Daniel Carter Beard, and others, he rewrote the manual as a nonmilitary nature skill book and called it Scouting for Boys. To test his ideas, Baden-Powell brought together 22 boys to camp at Brownsea Island, off the coast of England. This historic campout was a success and resulted in the advent of Scouting. Thus, the imagination and inspiration of Baden-Powell, later proclaimed Chief Scout of the World, brought Scouting to youth the world over."

After his marriage with Olave St Clair Soames, Baden-Powell, his sister Agnes Baden-Powell and notably his wife actively gave guidance to the Scouting Movement and the Girl Guides Movement. Baden-Powell lived his last years in Nyeri, Kenya, where he died in 1941.

Early life

Baden-Powell was born as Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell, or more familiarly as Stephe Powell in London, England, on February 22, 1857. His father Reverend Baden Powell, a Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford University, already had four teenage children from the second of his two previous marriages.

Military career

In 1876, R.S.S. Baden-Powell, joined the British Army in India as a Lieutenant. He honed his reconnaissance skills during Britain's invasion of the Zulu kingdom in the early 1880s. During one of his travels, he came across a large string of wooden beads, worn by the Zulu king Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo, which was later incorporated into the Wood Badge training program. He was posted in Malta for three years, also working as intelligence officer for the Mediterranean for the Director of Military Intelligence. He frequently traveled disguised as a butterfly collector, incorporating plans of military installations into his drawings of butterfly wings. [1]

Scouting Movement

On his return from Africa in 1903, Baden-Powell found that his military training manual, Aids to Scouting, had become a best-seller, and was being used by teachers and youth organizations. Baden-Powell decided to re-write Aids to Scouting to suit a youth readership. In August 1907 he held camp on Brownsea Island for twenty-two boys of mixed social background to test out the applicability of his ideas. In 1910 lieutenant-general Baden-Powell decided to retire from the Army on the advice of King Edward VII, who suggested that he could better serve his country by promoting Scouting.

Boys and girls spontaneously formed Scout troops and the Scouting Movement had inadvertently started, first as a national, and soon an international obsession. The Girl Guide Movement was subsequently founded in 1910 under the auspices of Baden-Powell's sister, Agnes Baden-Powell. Baden-Powell's friend, Juliette Gordon Low, was encouraged by him to bring the Movement to America, where she founded the Girl Scouts of the USA.

In 1920, the World Scout Jamboree took place in Olympia, London, and Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Scout of the World.

At the 5th World Scout Jamboree in 1937, Baden-Powell gave his farewell to Scouting, and retired from public Scouting life.

Baden-Powell died on 8 January 1941 and is buried in Nyeri, in St. Peter's Cemetery. His gravestone bears a circle with a dot in the centre, which is the trail sign for "I have gone home."